Monday, August 20, 2012

the markets and the dreams

Quite unplanned, we stumbled into a large tourist craft market in Nairobi on the weekend. The large square plot was full of colour, with each shopkeeper displaying their various goods laid out on the ground before them. We weren’t interested in buying anything, but are always up for snapping some photos.

Before we’d even walked through the front gate, a local guy struck up conversation with us, stuck to us, and started guiding us through the market. We did our best to convince him that we weren’t tourists and didn’t require or particularly want a guide, but he was like glue and eventually led us to his small plot, covered with paintings and woodwork.

When a bunch of his friends crowded in around us, keen to drag us to their own handicrafts, we slipped our camera back into our bag, elbowed our way out of the crowd and went on our merry way.

Our favourite moment was when one shopkeeper delightedly announced ‘Oh I knew you’d come back Sir, I’ve seen you here before!!’ It was our first time to the market, and we obviously hadn’t seen him before, which I kindly informed him. Quick on his feet, his reply came ‘I saw you this morning… in my dreams!’

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Speaking of dreams, we’ve been having some weird ones. Maybe it’s part of settling into a new routine and a new bed, maybe it’s the effect of mchuzi mix, an MSG product found in a lot of Kenyan food. Either way, the sleep talker has returned.

I woke up one night to find Will half sitting up, with his hand in the air like he was hailing a cab. I asked what he was doing. He said, somewhat unreassuringly, ‘Don’t worry, there’s just a snake in between us.’ I responded quizzically with ‘I don’t see how hailing a cab is going to get rid of the snake’ and we both promptly fell back to sleep.